Heat and Dust
by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
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Book Summary Information
Author: Ruth Prawer JhabvalaEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-06-01
ISBN: 1582430152
Number of pages: 192
Publisher: Counterpoint
Book Reviews of Heat and Dust
Book Review: A flatly written English novel that did not merit the accolades that it received.
Summary: 2 Stars
After finishing Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's 1975 Booker-Prize winning novel set in India during the British Raj, I will admit, I was puzzled at the degree of kudos that this most mediocre novel received. To say that the book was lackluster in its conveyance of colonialism in India is barely hitting the mark in its accuracy. And to put it on the same shelf as A Passage to India is completely laughable, thus illustrating once again that overzealous literary critics are only too eager to press forth onto the public reading material that would not warrant their time nor their effort. If one is inspired by literary prizes, like the Booker Prize that this novel received, I would caution readers to check it out from the library rather than buying the book; you can be your own critic and do yourself a minor economic service.
The novel is about how social constraints can lead people to actions that are less than desirable, and the main character, Olivia, makes many undesirable choices, the paramount one of them being that she aborts the baby of the Nawab, a minor Indian prince (in the territory) whom she has befriended and unexpectedly fallen in love with, despite the fact that she is happily married to Douglas, a junior British officer and bureaucrat. In the novel, there is really no inking that the marriage is cracking up and splitting Douglas and Olivia away from each other, and it is that deliberate ambiguity that makes the work not fully fleshed out and believable. The only hint that the marriage is not as solid as it appears is that Olivia wants a baby and Douglas holds off. But that is speculation, at best. And if that is indeed the case and thus the causal effect for Olivia's later actions, it puts an extreme negative spotlight on her. Understanding the social constraints of a specific milieu or period is one thing but compounding that with a British aristocratic sauce is just highly not credible, no matter what literary devices and creative liberty are executed upon the story as a whole. It does not make the plot a success. In fact, it barely rises to that bar. The reasoning given for Olivia's predicament almost borders as an experience on the Magic Carpet Ride after an LSD trip, for being in love with India is a dangerous thing for the European mindset. People let their cares down and in one fell swoop nonstop unwanted pregnancies occur, for it correlates to the woman's desire to experience love, lust and motherhood. But, naturally, due to socioeconomic constraints, the latter is never followed through with. Heat and Dust is extremely one-sided, and a worldview of options is not available, much less pondered.
Heat and Dust is primarily two stories that are interwoven to create one novel. The first story, as indicated, revolves around Olivia, a bored British officer's wife who longs for motherhood and is somewhat coming to grips with the exotic locations of her husband's assigned posts, for where ever he is assigned, she too is there. She has a conventional view of herself, and in turn, expects a kind of orthodoxy for the whole of her life. Considering the times that she is living in, that is a facet of her life that is truthful. Unfortunately, it is the only truthful element to the whole book. Olivia is not a particularly bright woman with any sense of foresight and intuitiveness. She is absolutely a stunted character, who, like her dim-witted husband, can not see the forest through the trees. Their limitations and or flaws just do not seem credible. Or perhaps it is the fault of the magic of India? Give me a break! The second part of the novel, though minor, deals with a female relation of Douglas's who also visits India and in turn winds up in a similar position that Olivia was herself once in. There is an emotional connection that the relation feels for Olivia, especially when she reads old letters and journals belonging to the Scarlet Lettered mythical woman. The letters and journals are used almost as survival how-to guides for getting along in India - definitely a warped view of things. Yet, they are somehow sisters or feminists-in-arms. Though the relation is more emancipated than Olivia ever was, she too is a flat and distantly written character; she almost gets her rocks off by Olivia's experience, which (I am only assuming) she deems as compelling and empowering. Yet, there no true elaboration as to why she feels the way that she does. I can only surmise that she is viewing Olivia and her actions from a historical context, that women like Olivia just don't do what she did. In the whole picture, it really was not all that great and admirable. Religiously, Olivia could be compared to the Eve of the Old Testament and the cousin who keeps her baby could be considered Mary in the New Testament. But that would be a huge stretch based solely upon interpretation.
For me, what I did not like overall about Heat and Dust is that women often have to be placed in the worst case scenarios and have to make truly horrific actions against themselves in order to be deemed heroines for future generations. It is such a predictable and overused plot in fiction nowadays. The work was just bland and the plot was ridiculous. While the writing was technically good, the book overall belonged in the bucket of Booker-Prize bummers.
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